Usage note

waiter

noun

a man whose occupation is to serve at table, as in a restaurant

an attendant at the London Stock Exchange or Lloyd's who carries messages: the modern equivalent of waiters who performed these duties in the 17th-century London coffee houses in which these institutions originated

waiter

n.

late 14c., "attendant, watchman," agent noun from wait (v.). Sense of "servant who waits at tables" is from late 15c., originally in reference to household servants; in reference to inns, eating houses, etc., it is attested from 1660s.